Manat See goddess.
Mappila See india.
maqam (Arabic: place, station)
Maqam has several meanings in Islamic religious
contexts. In the most widespread sense it denotes
a sacred place that commemorates a saint. Found
in North Africa and the Middle East, such shrines
consist of a domed building, inside of which is the
saint’s tomb. This tomb is enclosed by a screen, and
often covered by layers of cloth brought as gifts by
visitors and pilgrims seeking the saint’s blessing
(baraka). Disciples and members of the saint’s fam-
ily are often buried in the same chamber or nearby
in the courtyard or adjacent buildings. Descendants
of the saint, or his or her devotees, often serve as
caretakers for the shrine. A maqam may be located
in a crowded urban neighborhood, in a village, or
in uninhabited areas. People visit it on the occasion
of the saint’s birthday (mawlid), religious holidays,
or in connection with life-cycle rituals.
Muslims regard the Station (maqam Ibrahim)
of abraham as one of the most important places
inside the Grand Mosque of mecca. In the qUran
it is called a prayer place (Q 2:125) and is located
the northwest wall of God’s house, the kaaba.
Pilgrims perform prayers there after circumam-
bulating the Kaaba. Commentaries and narratives
about Mecca’s mythic history affirm that it was
originally a stone from paradise that Abraham
stood upon to make his universal call to perform
the haJJ. It was believed that he left his footprint
in it. Some commentators maintained that the
Station of Abraham originally referred either to
the larger sanctuary or to another location in the
sacred territory surrounding Mecca.
The third meaning of maqam in Islam is a “sta-
tion” on the mystical path to God. It was used as
a technical term in the vocabulary of the Sufis. A
station was attained by the intentional efforts of
the mystic, in contrast to the hal, which was a
spontaneous gift from God. The spiritual seeker
had to perfect each maqam before progressing to
the next. The number, names, and sequence of sta-
tions varied greatly among Sufi authors and orders.
They prescribed 4, 7, 50, 100, and even 1,000 sta-
tions. In the 11th century Al-Qushayri listed 50
stations starting with “repentance” and ending with
“yearning,” whereas al-Ansari’s list of 100 began
with “wakefulness” and ended with “unity.” In a
different vein, The Conference of the Birds, a Persian
epic poem by Farid al-Din Attar (d. ca. 1220),
depicted a mystical journey through seven valleys,
each representing a maqam on the Sufi path: “seek-
ing,” “love,” “knowledge,” “detachment,” “unity,”
“bewilderment,” and “annihilation.”
In Arab, Persian, and Turkish mUsic, maqam
refers to one of several different modes, or musi-
cal scales.
See also sUFism; wali.Further reading: Farid Ud-Din Attar, The Conference
of the Birds (New York: Penguin Books, 1984); Carl W.
Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston: Shamb-
hala, 1997); Ali ibn Uthman al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al-
Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism. Translated
by R. A. Nicholson (1959. Reprint, New Delhi: Taj
Printers, 1997); Francis E. Peters, The Hajj: The Muslim
Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1994): 6–9, 16–17; Michael
Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic
and Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press,
1996), 102–103.market See bazaar.
martyrdom
Martyrdom (shahada) in Islam is intimately linked
to the obligation of Jihad (“struggle” for the Faith).
Traditionally, the martyr (Av. sing shahid), has sev-
eral contexts of meaning in Islam. (1) The martyr
can offer up his/her life to defend Islam and the
Sunni umma, or majority religious community,martyrdom 457 J